The field of the invention is roller skates.
Roller skating has become a popular form of recreation throughout the world, particularly since the advent of in-line skates. There are, however, potentially significant drawbacks. One drawback is the need to carry and switch between a pair of skates for skating and a pair of shoes for walking. Another drawback is the difficulty of braking when using in-line skates.
It is known to address the need to carry and switch between walking and skating footwear by utilizing a convertible or xe2x80x9ccombinationxe2x80x9d shoe/skate. In one class of embodiments the wheels are locked into a vertical, skating orientation, and withdrawn into a receiving space formed within a sufficiently thick sole. Examples are U.S. Pat. No. 3,884,485 to Wxc3xa4lle (May 1975); U.S. Pat. No. 3,983,643 to Schreyer et al (October 1976), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,249 to Schaefer (June 1982).
Thick-soled shoes present considerable problems in walking, and other inventors have developed combination shoe/skates in which the wheels are vertically raised to the side of the sole. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,970 to Tucky (March 1995). That solution, however, produces a shoe that has undesirable visual characteristics.
It is also known to pivot the wheels about an axis so that they fold up into the sole of the shoe. U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,469 to Yoham (September 1998) describes a combination shoe/skate in which the wheels are carried by a frame that pivots between a vertical position for skating, and a horizontal position for walking. In the horizontal position the side of the frame facing downwards bears a soft rubber coating which acts as a sole for walking. The problem is that although the sole of the shoe is technically very thin, the mechanism employed makes the distance between a user""s foot and the ground more than twice the thickness of the wheels.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,982 to Logan (May 1990) describes another solution in which canted wheels are employed to reduce the amount that the wheels must be pivoted between skating position and walking position. Unfortunately the canted wheel solution positions the sole of the shoe only a very small height above the ground while in the skating position making navigation difficult.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the field of roller skating for a convertible shoe/skate in which the wheels can pivot between a walking position that provides good walking characteristics, and a skating position that provides good skating characteristics.
With respect to braking mechanisms for in-line and other roller skates, it is known to provide continuous brakes, toe stops, forward axis brakes, heel pads, rear axis brakes, cable brakes, and leverage brakes. (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,231 to Carlsmith (August 1993) for a summary and evaluation of such mechanisms). Unfortunately, all of these known mechanisms still suffer from various drawbacks, including general difficulty of use and inadequate braking. Still further, the known methods of braking are quite inapplicable to convertible shoe/skates.
Accordingly, there also remains a need in the field of roller skating for novel braking mechanisms, and especially for braking mechanisms applicable to skates that convert into walking shoes.
The present invention is directed to improvements in roller skates that facilitate their appearance and function as walking shoes. One improvement involves providing at least one skate wheel that can be pivoted by at least 60xc2x0 up inside the sole of the skate to facilitate walking. Another improvement involves providing a skate with user replaceable, friction operated side brakes.
In preferred embodiments the shoe/skate has multiple such pivoting wheels coupled by a common, pivoting support arm. It is also preferred that in the walking position the pivoting wheels are substantially coplanar with the sole of the skate, while in the skating position the pivoting wheels are substantially perpendicular to the sole of the skate. It is still further preferred that the skate wheel pivots about an axis passing through a portion of the wheels.